Katie Dey's 'universal will' Is a Gorgeously Unruly Masterpiece of Bedroom Maximalism
The Sonic Breakdown
universal will is Katie Dey’s seventh full-length and she made it by herself, in her bedroom, and put it out herself — the only credits on the release are a thank-you to Black Squares Media, her Patreon, and the people who paid for it. Ten tracks, no label, no studio, no co-writers.
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Built, not recorded. Dey has always treated the low end as a texture to be bent rather than a foundation to be laid, and the record is mixed to let that distortion read as intent.
The Spatial Dynamics: The sequencing is the argument. “masterplan” lasts 1:40, “emerging from debris” 1:53 — sketches dropped between full songs — and then “unfathomable you / catherine wheel” runs 9:46, by a distance the longest thing here, before the title track lands in three minutes flat and closes the door. Two of the ten titles are slash-joined pairs, which tells you how willing she is to let one idea collapse into another mid-track.
Standout Performance
Dey, on everything, by default — but specifically on “vacant lot / home,” where the vocal processing stops being an effect and starts being the instrument carrying the melody.
Why It’s Certified
⚡ Paste’s Miranda Wollen: “universal will is weird and jarring and wonderful: unmistakably Katie Dey.”
🌈 From the same review: “Dey has never been afraid to shock and surprise.”
🌈 Seven records deep and still genuinely hard to predict. That is rarer than it sounds.